Greenland Part 2

Put in a really full day today. About 13 hours. 13 hours of doing nothing but following someone around. Man, this is rough. It might not be so bad if I had some idea of what the hell they are talking about, but they might as well be speaking another language. It all goes clear over my head. Jesse, the guy John's escorting, stayed later than my guy (Chris) did. He may even still be there for all I know. Poor bastard. After we got off, Kim & Thomas (the guys who took us to the launch sites last night) along with Bjarne, took us to one of the scanner buildings to the old radar system, which is actually connected to BMEWS via a long tunnel. It was absolutely mind-blowing. (I must also mention, as an aside, that it was also cold as all fuck! The worst cold I've experienced so far. Must've been around -30 in there, somehow actually COLDER than outside, don't ask me how.) Long, dusty, concrete corridors of enormous waveguides and cable trays dimly lit by 40-watt bulbs which, combined with the extreme cold, lent the whole thing a very spooky, Soviet, Cold War feeling. The journey culminated in an enormous chamber that I can't begin to describe. All I can say is I've never seen anything like this before in my life. The amount of effort that went in to constructing all of this is simply staggering, especially considering the location and the time period (the early-'60s). I unfortunately didn't have my camera because we're not allowed to bring cameras into the radar site and I'm afraid to leave it out in the freezing truck all day. We're going back, though, to show John & Jesse, and I'll have to bring it despite my concerns. Also, the moon was really bright tonight and I was wishing I had the camera to take some shots of the landscape on the way back to base. It was gorgeous. Man, what a shitty day, but seeing this stuff makes it all worthwhile. But I'm pretty fucking tired after this long day and have to wake up early again tomorrow and do it all over again, so I should probably get to bed.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were more of the same boring escorting. I was lucky to get one more night of clear skies and take advantage of that full moon to get a couple of decent pictures coming home Tuesday evening. Ever since then it's been cloudy and you can't see anything. The other day we were asked to stay an additional two weeks as things aren't going as smoothly as they had hoped. So now we'll be here for four weeks instead of two. Just passed the one-week mark yesterday. As with any trip, the first week usually feels like 3 or 4 times as long, then it speeds up as you get used to your surroundings.

Today I was pleased to be relieved of my escort duties. Chris didn't come up so they had me do a little drafting to keep me busy. It felt good to be actually doing something and the day flew by. Chris is coming up tomorrow, but Charley says he's gonna have someone else escort him so I can help move furniture or something. That's great. It'll be good to get a little exercise. The food here is good and cheap, but tends to be on the heavy side. First few days everything I ate felt like a lead weight it my stomach. Now I'm trying to make a conscious effort to eat on the lighter side.

Some sights on the way back to base under a full moon

Jesse fearlessly downs the first raw snail left behind by some previous barrack dwellers. John & Dave follow suit while I eschew the escargot.

John, Emil, Dave, and Jesse at the TOW club bar

Actually doing real work at BMEWS

Weather-wise, it's warmed up a bit lately. It's been hovering around -10 to 0 and we have yet to get any kind of storm or strong winds. The worst thing has been the dryness. I've been getting nosebleeds once or twice every day. I tried getting some nasal spray at the BX but they're all out. Fortunately, Charley had an extra humidifier which he lent me. It goes through a lot of water, but there's no noticable diminishment of the dryness. It must be working, though, as the water isn't just disappearing. It must just be so dry that the air sucks it up like a sponge and it's still relatively dry. I'm still getting nosebleeds, but not quite as many. I did manage to pick up a very comforting reminder of home that I've never had the luxury of finding overseas before: Cheez-Its. Almost feels like I'm back home when I munch on them. Well, it's late, I'm tired, and I gotta work tomorrow (Saturday), so I better sign off.

Had some more good work on Saturday. Moved some furniture, worked on a shipment in the warehouse, and started a new drawing to facilitate the moving of some power supplies. Again, it was great to actually do something, although my reading is suffering. The MTH guys are finishing up their work here, so they had a dinner at the TOW club to kinda celebrate, and they kindly invited us. After a splendid meal, another night of intoxiciation followed. Much like last Saturday, I don't remember coming back to my room, but Kim (Høybye) apparently saw me home. I woke up this morning on the floor at the foot of my bed, just like my last night in Heimaey a year and a half ago. Strange. I guess in that state a bed just seems unnecessary.

I should make mention of an ongoing little thing between Jesse and Emil. At some point soon after we arrived Emil jokingly called Jesse a "girly man" and challenged his drinking tolerance. Last Saturday's bender was the natural outcome. Since Emil made it to work the following day, albeit in a pretty sorry state, and Jesse didn't, this glib exchange continued. Jesse tried his best not to get obliterated last night because he has pressing work to do and intended to put in a full day today. Well, I guess Emil finally got the best of him because he ended up sloshed again. He did make it up to the site this time, though, but not until around noon. John showed me some pictures he took on the way out there while it was relatively light out. Looked amazing. I cannot wait to actually see shit here.

Charley invited us all over to his place for dinner tonight, which was really nice. There he told us that they'll be looking for two people to do pretty much the same thing later this summer. John & I both jumped at the opportunity. This is exactly what I was hoping for! I can't wait to see this place in the summer. Wow. I'm pretty tired. Gotta get to bed soon.

Keeping warm on a walk to the dining hall for brunch

Miscellaneous shots on base

Dinner at Charley's place

Just got back to base. John, Jesse, and I drove up to site this morning around 6:15 amid a heavy fog. As we started climbing the gradual incline that leads up the hill BMEWS sits on, there was a point where the fog abuptly ended. It was so abrupt we all laughed. Never seen anything like that before. As we approached BMEWS, the wind started getting pretty strong. Walking from the truck to the building you could really feel it. Man, that wind makes all the difference. When it's still, you're uncomfortable and you can really feel it when you breathe the air, but when even a little wind hits you, it's painful on any exposed skin. When we got in I found out we were in storm condition alpha. They have 4 storm conditions here which they call alpha, bravo, charlie, and delta. Alpha is a light storm with hazardous conditions forecasted within 12 hours. Bravo is sustained winds greater than 25 knots and visibility less than three-quarters of a mile. Charlie is winds >35 knots, visibility <.5 miles, and delta is winds >50 knots, visibility <100 yards. Within minutes of us entering the site, condition went to bravo and some people had to return to base, including my escortee Chris. As I was seeing him out of the building, Martin (one of the GC (Greenland Contractors) guys) told me that I should get out of there if possible because if it goes to condition charlie you can't leave and you're stuck up at the site until the weather clears, which could potentially be days. Literally by the time I got back upstairs, the weather forecasters had predicted a rapid worsening, so we were all leaving immediately.

The ride back was pretty intense. Luckily we had other vehicles immediately in front of us which helped us see a little better, but there were times that the degree of obfuscation was pretty disturbing. I can definitely see how you could be stopped in your tracks if that wind and snow had gotten much worse. I tried taking some video of the ride home, but from what I could see on the screen, it didn't look like it was capturing what I was seeing in real life. When I got back here and turned on the TV, I saw that BMEWS was already at charlie and the road to the site was closed. We fucking got out just in time. Thank god. There was a few MTH guys here when I got in. Since the base was only at condition alpha, they were going to work on one of the buildings here. What troopers. They're predicting this weather will get worse and last through until Saturday. That means we may be stuck down here for days and if it gets up to charlie down here, we won't even be able to leave our barracks. We'll just have to wait and see I guess. I brought plenty of reading material and can amuse myself elsewise. Jesse's gonna be very unhappy, though. He was scheduled, and very much looking forward to going home on Friday. If this does get worse, he ain't goin' nowhere.

Went out today with John to the BX and then back down by the harbor to get some photos while it was light out. He walked out onto the sea ice to a crumpled-up heap of ice right near the shore. He tried to get me to go, but I was skittish. I knew it was probably perfectly safe, but I just wasn't feeling confident about it, especially considering we were under a storm warning. He was out there for awhile, taking pictures and shit. I took a few pictures of him out there as well, all the while thinking what I would do if the ice broke on him or a storm blast came pounding down upon us. After like 5-10 minutes out there, though, I couldn't take it anymore. The cold really started driving itself into my legs and face and I had to go wait for him in the truck. I'm a wimp. And it's not even that cold here today! Only -7 at the moment (OK, -39 with the wind chill, but still).

After that we went back to his barrack to pick up the rest of the guys for lunch. They told us the dining hall was closed because of the storm threat. Everyone here is preparing for the base to go charlie soon, in which case we won't be allowed to leave our barracks. In the event an extended stay indoors is requred, all buildings are stocked with MREs (meals ready to eat), but from what I hear, they're terrible, so we were told we should stock up on stuff at the BX while we still had the chance. On our way to the BX I suggested we check the dining hall just in case those guys were mistaken. After all, we're still alpha down here so I couldn't really see them shutting down yet. Sure enough, it was open, so we went in and had a big lunch. I took home a salad and a few pastries in anticipation of soon being a prisoner, then we went to the BX and picked up some more food to last us a few days.

Finally, I dropped John off and came back here to find the Greenlandic cleaning crew doing their thing. After they were done they sat down for a smoke in the common room. I chatted with them a bit as this was the first opportunity I had to really sit and talk with actual Greenlanders. One of them was from nearby Qaanaaq and one was from Ilulissat. Unfortunately they didn't stay long and took off to continue their custodial duties in another building. Now to just relax. I'm really glad Charley gave me that humidifier. Not only does it provide much-needed moisture, but it also cools this inferno of a room better than leaving my little window wide open. Well, I see Det-3 is now at bravo. Guess this thing is getting worse.

That storm ended up dying down later that day so we were able to go to work the next day. The plane from the US was supposed to come in that day, but due to the storm it got held back a day, and consequently, Jesse & Chris' scheduled departure on Friday was pushed to Saturday. Friday night we finally got to go back to the old radar site (and I had my camera with me this time!). After that Jesse and Dave went back to their barrack and John & I went with Kim to check out some other stuff like the power station and the dump. He kept wanting to show us stuff, but it was getting late and we wanted to go back and spend some time with Jesse and Chris seeing as it was their last night here. On the way back to base, though, John spotted some Arctic hares and we pulled over to get some pictures. I pointed the headlights at them and John slowly made his way around them so that they were standing between us, both of us taking pictures of them the whole time. It was fucking amazing. They just sat there for like 10 minutes while we took picture after picture, almost as if they were posing for us, before suddenly taking off. They were huge.

The old radar site
Strange snow formations make their way into cracks and openings	Views from the tunnel	The scanner building!	Emergency exit window. The rope is for climbing down.
De-icing and enclosure heating control center	Dave stands next to some huge fuses	Walking back up the tunnel	Lovely



Det-3	Some building near Det-3	We all climb a huge snow drift that reaches the top of the building, then slide down.	The dump	"That's no ordinary rabbit!"

We all went back to John's barrack and hung out for a bit before calling it a night. On Saturday, with both our escortees flying home, John & I moved furniture and shit all day. We went outside after lunch to go out and look around while it was light out. Finally, after over two weeks, I got to see the surroundings around BMEWS, including, most significantly, Wolstenholme Fjord. It was simply amazing. Unfortunately I don't think my pictures came out well. The light level was so low I couldn't avoid camera shake blurriness. With no tripod, no good places to place the camera down, and with such violent gusting winds, I just couldn't achieve a steady, stable base to take nice, clear pictures. Hopefully I'll get another chance when it's lighter out.

First sights outside BMEWS				Views on the way back to base
BMEWS, behind the radar arrays	The side with the arrays visible	Various sights of the surroundings	Wolstenholme Fjord

Saturday night was our, by now customary let's-get-shitfaced-night. And we did. John, Emil, and I started drinking here, then went to someone else's barrack where they had a really nice bar set up, drank some more there, then went to another and did ourselves in there. Emil went to sleep there, John spent the night there, and I was sent home via the base's taxi service. Saturday afternoon, as we were driving back to base, a storm was brewing. We didn't know, but we did get out and take some pictures and we experienced some pretty fucking crazy winds. Later on that night BMEWS actually went delta. It cleared up breifly this morning and some of the MTH guys went up there to work, then it worsened again. Kim H. called me from the site letting me know that they were expecting to have to spend the night there tonight. It ended up dying down, though, and now it's at alpha.

Today is Superbowl Sunday, so everyone's watching that shit. Super Tuesday is two days away. Lotta shit going on back home, but we can follow it all on television so it doesn't feel like we're missing anything. Back to the grindstone tomorrow. With no one to escort, we'll hopefully be doing some actual work again, which'll be nice.

The view outside my barrack		Signposts outside the fitness center
Looking east. Dundas mountain barely visible through the fog	Looking west